WestDAAT Google Analytics

[amabdallah]

Draft issue

Google Analytics

It is a nightmare to work with. It's associated with my WSWC email account.

Different ways to access it

1. Generate reports/plots in Google Analytics
2. Export reports data into CSV.
3. Use Tableau to connect to Google Analytics

However, the downloaded data doest not seem to match this report
https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/#/p320732979/reports/dashboard?params=_u.date00%3D20220901%26_u.date01%3D20240227%26_u..nav%3Dmaui%26_r.0..activeTab%3D0%26_u.comparisonOption%3Ddisabled&r=7579222121&collectionId=6502960912

Microsoft Clarity

It is hard to work with too. It's connected to this email WaDE_WSWC@hotmail.com

[amabdallah]

@rwjam
think this could be one gold standard on WestDAAT analytics: weekly total users/visitors. The weekly time step is good because it sums up daily variations and weekends and provides more insight compared to the monthly time step. On average, we've been getting 48 users/visitors per week (including both new and returning unique visitors). That's a good metric to remember.
I've done it in Tableau through a direct connection to Google Analytics. It needs a connection fix but it should be possible to publish it as a "live" dashboard on our website.

[amabdallah]

Absolute nightmare! I've been relying on the high-level count that Google Analytics provides, but it turns out it's not correct, especially with larger timeframes. See this example :(

https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/#/p320732979/reports/dashboard?params=_u.comparisonOption%3Ddisabled%26_r.0..activeTab%3D0%26_u.date00%3D20240219%26_u.date01%3D20240229&r=reporting-hub

CSV file exported from Google Analytics (shows the count 49)
data-exportFeb19-29.csv

[amabdallah]

I think the likely explanation is that Google is not consistent in their terminology of what a user means in their reports and their downloaded data. The report show "active user" through its just called "user" while the downloaded data show total users through its just called "users" What a mess. Active users are less than total users

https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/12253918?hl=en#:~:text=Differences%20at%20a%20glance&text=%22Total%20users%22%20is%20the%20total,in%20the%20specified%20date%20range.

[amabdallah]

Active user is the one who has an engaged session (i.e., spent at least 10 seconds on the page before they closed it and/or clicked around). This is the audience we're interested in.

[amabdallah]

In Tableau, "edit connection" allows getting an update from Google Analytics through this dialog box with pre-selected start date and parameters